Deep Synoptic Array Science: Searching for Long Duration Radio Transients with the DSA-110
Abstract
We describe the design and commissioning tests for the DSA-110 Not-So-Fast Radio Burst (NSFRB) search pipeline, a 1.4GHz image-plane single-pulse search sensitive to 134ms-160.8s radio bursts. Extending the pulse width range of the FRB search by 3 orders of magnitude, the NSFRB search is sensitive to the recently-discovered Galactic Long Period Radio Transients (LPRTs or LPTs). The NSFRB search operates in real-time, utilizing a custom GPU-accelerated search code, \texttt{cerberus}, implemented in Python with JAX. We summarize successful commissioning sensitivity tests with continuum sources and pulsar B0329+54, estimating the 90% completeness flux (fluence) limit to be ~1200mJy (~160Jy ms). Future tests of recovery of longer timescale transients, e.g. CHIME J1634+44, are planned to supplement injection testing and B0329+54 observations. An offline DSA-110 NSFRB Galactic Plane Survey was conducted to search for LPRTs, covering and (~770 square degrees) in Galactic coordinates. We estimate an upper limit Poissonian burst rate ~2 hr per square degree (~17 hr} per survey grid cell) maximized across the inner of the surveyed region. By imposing the ~1200mJy flux limit on two representative models (the magnetar plastic flow model and the White Dwarf-M Dwarf binary model), we reject with 95% confidence the presence of White Dwarf-M Dwarf binary LPRTs (beamed in a detectable direction) with periods between ~10-50s within ~95% of the surveyed region. Combined with the prevalence of LPRTs in the Galactic Plane, our results motivate further consideration of both White Dwarf-M Dwarf binary models and isolated magnetar models. We will continue to explore novel LPRT search strategies during real-time operations, such as triggered periodicity searches and additional targeted surveys.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2510.18136,
title = {Deep Synoptic Array Science: Searching for Long Duration Radio Transients with the DSA-110},
author = {Myles B. Sherman and Nikita Kosogorov and Casey Law and Vikram Ravi and Jakob T. Faber and Stella K. Ocker and Liam Connor and Yuanhong Qu and Kaitlyn Shin and Kritti Sharma and Pranav Sanghavi and Gregg Hallinan and Mark Hodges},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.18136},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
19 pages, 11 figures, corrected intro paragraph 3 meerkat discovery of psr j0901-4046; no changes to analysis or conclusions